Friday, November 5, 2010
Emotions, Language, and Fiction
If you are interested in the emotions, language, and fiction, you might wish to look at the article I've just posted at my other blog,...."A Neurotic in an Exotic Land."
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
a stew of ignorance and resignation
There are many shocking and disturbing features of life in the USA.
Recently, talking to citizens of this country, I have been struck by a combination of ignorance and resignation. Believing that things are somehow not exactly good or right, the people I've spoken to seem to adopt an attitude of measured resignation.
Yet, this is not tempered by actual knowledge of how bad things really are in the United States.
If I were to recommend one source for the claim that things are bad, I might recommend The Spirit Level by Richard Wilkinson (I misspelled his name earlier--whoops!) and Kate Pickett. There are a variety of charts there which measure quality of life--and in all of them the USA winds up on the bottom--as compared to other industrialized countries.
Another source might be Erik Olin Wright and Joel Roger's American Society; How it Really Works. (This is not a work I have studied carefully, but I did read parts of the internet pre-publication post.)
But, that general phenomenon is not new. I have a clear memory of regularly reading in the Slovak press what various UNESCO studies had to say about the low quality of life in the USA.....
A disturbing rhetorical trend is the American's willingness to justify a corrupt and unjust system with the remark "every system [[health care, political, economic...]] has its problems." That represents an evasion. It frees the mind from focusing upon the real problem. It's the sort of universal thought-avoiding solvent that could be used to justify all sorts of tyranny and worse.
The problem isn't about tinkering around the edges to make something smoother or better; it is about fundamental inequality and injustice.....unnecessary misery and suffering, the degradation of our humanity...
Note:
"The Spirit Level" has stirred up a good bit of controversy. However, to judge from the Wikipedia article about the book, the authors have taken the time to answer critics..... Anyone interested in knowing more might take a look at Wikipedia.... There seem to be a good number of links there....
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
walgreens
30 minutes waiting in line for medicines... two of them were supposed to be ready yesterday, but were not--and yesterday I also waited inline 15 or 20 minutes....
yes, I remember that's what they used to say about communism: people waiting in lines....
yes, I remember that's what they used to say about communism: people waiting in lines....
Monday, November 1, 2010
no communism here
I went to Walgreens to pick up medicine for my elderly parents.
I waited in line... how long? don't know precisely,
but at Walgreens about 90 per cent of the time I do....
The medicines were not ready...
but if I wanted to wait an hour...
Funny! I remember that during Communism people were always waiting in lines...
Ah, but with Communism health care was universal
And even today in Slovakia, a post-socialist (former Communist) country, medicines are
cheaper.
And when I lived there I never had the kind of problem I have at Walgreens--e.g., waiting in line to find out the medicine which was supposed to be ready is not.... No, I had no such problems...
I believe that the modern Slovak health care system is very similar to that which they had under communism...
I waited in line... how long? don't know precisely,
but at Walgreens about 90 per cent of the time I do....
The medicines were not ready...
but if I wanted to wait an hour...
Funny! I remember that during Communism people were always waiting in lines...
Ah, but with Communism health care was universal
And even today in Slovakia, a post-socialist (former Communist) country, medicines are
cheaper.
And when I lived there I never had the kind of problem I have at Walgreens--e.g., waiting in line to find out the medicine which was supposed to be ready is not.... No, I had no such problems...
I believe that the modern Slovak health care system is very similar to that which they had under communism...
Blue Cross Blue Shield
As it happens, my father has insurance through "Blue Cross/Blue Shield". I've just been
looking at the CD they sent in the mail...
I wonder....
How much money do they spend paying actors to pose for photos?
Oh, yes, they are nice photos..
Handsome men and women...
Nice clothes...
etc...
but couldn't the money be better spent elsewhere?
looking at the CD they sent in the mail...
I wonder....
How much money do they spend paying actors to pose for photos?
Oh, yes, they are nice photos..
Handsome men and women...
Nice clothes...
etc...
but couldn't the money be better spent elsewhere?
The American Way/the American RIP OFF
A basic axiom of warfare is that combatants grab whatever is to hand.
This applies equally well to CLASS warfare.
Thus so-called health insurance providers will now require citizens to own computers,
and print out information.
Instead of providing printed information, we, the citizens must pay for the paper and
ink....
the United States of BAnks
a country where the RICHEST are constantly engaged in classwarfare with the rest of us....
This applies equally well to CLASS warfare.
Thus so-called health insurance providers will now require citizens to own computers,
and print out information.
Instead of providing printed information, we, the citizens must pay for the paper and
ink....
the United States of BAnks
a country where the RICHEST are constantly engaged in classwarfare with the rest of us....
in passing/the grouch reads
the grouch reads and comments in passing on....
Naomi Reshotko's Socratic Virtue....(Cambridge UP)
On page 50, Naomi quotes Penner and Rowe:
"In general people are well aware their conceptions and descriptions of the people they are referring to are inadquate."
(quoting their 1994, "The Desire for the Good; is the Meno inconsistent with the Gorgias?", p. 6, in Phronesis 39 (1), 1-25)
Now here's my in-passing remark (which I make with some trepidation, as these things can be complicated)....
One might want to emphasize that the remark concerns referring to people. But my first thought goes something like this:
That sort of openness to correction--though it is certainly the wise policy--did not characterize my work experiences from 1996 to 2009. My employers didn't want to hear any sort of corrections of their mistaken views--unless that happened to be asked in an extremely restricted, technical context. (E.g. one pompous and arrogant woman decided that a school "needed" a dress code, and left the teachers to decide exactly which length of skirt was acceptable for proper young ladies...)
When I speak above of "their mistaken views", you may think that I am dogmatic or
arrogant; you could equally say: they just didn't want to discuss or consider alternative views once they had decided--and it wasn't necessarily the case that I was allowed to participate in the decision-making process.
And, when it comes to it, when I worked in high schools, the discussion of particular people, i.e., students, was omnipresent and largely unfair. I always felt as though we were acting as judges and juries and there was too little space for someone to speak in defense of a particular student. So, again, the idea of openness to correction seems to have been squashed...
I do feel some trepidation in airing this remark, but I offer the following as a partial resolution....
Maybe openness to correction is, in a sense, pefectly natural (not merely the metaphysical truth), and maybe our institutional structures (economic and political) war against it.
Or, the people I've had the displeasure of meeting in the past were simply foolish.....(though, in many cases, they were able to decide that my employment contract should not be renewed...)
Or, maybe in the case of individual students, I was too tired, cowardly, and depressed to argue that they had been condemned unfairly.... maybe my former colleagues would have had to listen... Or, maybe they would have become annoyed at me and accused me of not being a team player.
Naomi Reshotko's Socratic Virtue....(Cambridge UP)
On page 50, Naomi quotes Penner and Rowe:
"In general people are well aware their conceptions and descriptions of the people they are referring to are inadquate."
(quoting their 1994, "The Desire for the Good; is the Meno inconsistent with the Gorgias?", p. 6, in Phronesis 39 (1), 1-25)
Now here's my in-passing remark (which I make with some trepidation, as these things can be complicated)....
One might want to emphasize that the remark concerns referring to people. But my first thought goes something like this:
That sort of openness to correction--though it is certainly the wise policy--did not characterize my work experiences from 1996 to 2009. My employers didn't want to hear any sort of corrections of their mistaken views--unless that happened to be asked in an extremely restricted, technical context. (E.g. one pompous and arrogant woman decided that a school "needed" a dress code, and left the teachers to decide exactly which length of skirt was acceptable for proper young ladies...)
When I speak above of "their mistaken views", you may think that I am dogmatic or
arrogant; you could equally say: they just didn't want to discuss or consider alternative views once they had decided--and it wasn't necessarily the case that I was allowed to participate in the decision-making process.
And, when it comes to it, when I worked in high schools, the discussion of particular people, i.e., students, was omnipresent and largely unfair. I always felt as though we were acting as judges and juries and there was too little space for someone to speak in defense of a particular student. So, again, the idea of openness to correction seems to have been squashed...
I do feel some trepidation in airing this remark, but I offer the following as a partial resolution....
Maybe openness to correction is, in a sense, pefectly natural (not merely the metaphysical truth), and maybe our institutional structures (economic and political) war against it.
Or, the people I've had the displeasure of meeting in the past were simply foolish.....(though, in many cases, they were able to decide that my employment contract should not be renewed...)
Or, maybe in the case of individual students, I was too tired, cowardly, and depressed to argue that they had been condemned unfairly.... maybe my former colleagues would have had to listen... Or, maybe they would have become annoyed at me and accused me of not being a team player.
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